Ron Burgundy Uses The Same Password For Everything

posted by Diana Brown -
Aug 14, 2019

On this episode of The Ron Burgundy Podcast, Ron Burgundy and his producer, Carolina, talk about the Internet, which Ron informs us was “originally created by the US military as a way for members of our armed forces to trade baking recipes with each other,” and that Alexander Graham Bell connected the first computers to one another back in 2004. “And it’s never been more dangerous,” Ron warns. “I don't like to contribute to the culture of fear, but the Internet is truly terrifying. Right now, look at your children. They aren't safe. The elderly are at constant risk.” Fortunately, for this episode they have cybersecurity expert Richard Greenberg in the studio to ask about everything from passwords to pop-ups to how to protect yourself on the web. “It’s going to be fascinating to crack open his skull and figure out what’s swimming around in there,” Ron tells Carolina. “Metaphorically, I mean.”

Ron asks Richard - don’t call him Dick - about hacking first. “Who are the hackers? Are they a musical group?” Turns out, they aren’t, and not all hackers are criminals, either. Richard says they’re called black hat or white hat hackers. White hats try hacking into systems in order to find and fix the vulnerabilities; black hat hackers try to steal people’s personal data, banking information, and so on. “Every piece of information, credit card, social security, medical records, it has a value on the dark market,” Richard tells us.

In that case, passwords must be very important, Ron muses. “Now for myself, I just use the same password for everything in my life. Is that the right thing to do?” Richard advises against it, telling Ron, “Black hat hackers now...have ways where they can run scripts in computers and try thousands, hundreds of thousands if you will, password combinations, just random letters,” enabling them to crack Ron’s password - “boobs” - in about a minute. “I’ll take those chances,” Ron says, and Carolina replies incredulously, “You will?”

What about terms and conditions? Ron wants to know. “Now, I actually take the time to read every single word and then I send it to my lawyer and...he makes changes, and it takes forever, but I think it’s worth it.” Unfortunately, it’s not, in Richard’s opinion; he says essentially all Internet providers are saying the same thing: “we might get your stuff and...we might sell it. That’s the unfortunate part...there are rules in the European Union and they might come our way, which affords us a bit more control of our personal data.” But as far as Ron’s changes, they’re probably being “filed” straight into the trash can. “But my attorney charges me hourly,” Ron protests. “You’re saying it’s a waste of time?”

Ron discovers that the next big move in tech will probably be people getting chips implanted, rather than using phones like we do now. “People are getting chips installed now to protect themselves from kidnapping...if they're political, in office, and certain questionable countries," Richard says. "So the technology's there.” Ron got a chip installed because he got lost once, he tells Richard, but it turned out to be a poker chip instead of a microchip. “It did nothing. The guy ripped me off,” Ron says. “Also, it's horribly infected.” Carolina makes a note to get that looked at.

Join Ron, Carolina, and Richard to find out more about how to protect yourself on the Internet, Ron’s favorite CB radio lingo, and if robots are friends or foes, on this episode of The Ron Burgundy Podcast.

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